eXistenZ Pics

In the near-future, organic virtual reality game consoles known as "game pods" have replaced electronic ones. The pods are attached to "bio-ports", outlets inserted at players' spines, through umbilical cords. Two game companies, Antenna Research and Cortical Systematics, compete against each other. In addition, a group of "realists" fights both companies to prevent the "deforming" of reality.

Antenna Research's Allegra Geller (Jennifer Jason Leigh), the greatest game designer in the world, is testing her latest virtual reality game, eXistenZ, with a focus group at a seminar. She is shot in the shoulder by an assassin named Noel Dichter (Kris Lemche) with an organic pistol (the weapon on the poster), which is undetectable by security. As Dichter is gunned down by the security team, security guard (and marketing trainee) Ted Pikul (Jude Law), rushes to Geller and escorts her outside.

Allegra discovers that her pod, which contains the only copy of the eXistenZ game, may have been damaged due to an "UmbyCord" being ripped out as the game was being downloaded. To test it, she must plug into the game in tandem with another player that she can trust, and talks a reluctant Pikul into installing a bio-port in his own body so he can play the game with her. Pikul, one of a dwindling few who has refused to have a bio-port installed to this point, at first objects due to a phobia about "surgical penetration," but eventually gives in. They head to a gas station run by a black marketeer named Gas (Willem Dafoe) to get it installed. Gas deliberately installs a faulty bio-port and the game pod is damaged. Gas (with a shotgun in hand) reveals that he is going to kill Allegra for the bounty on her head, but Pikul shoots him with the rivet gun used to install the port.

The pair make their way to a former ski lodge used by Allegra's mentor, Kiri Vinokur (Ian Holm). He and his assistant repair the damaged pod and give Pikul a new bio-port. Inside the game, Pikul realizes that it is hard to tell whether his or Allegra's actions are their own intentions or the game's. When they meet D'Arcy Nader (Robert A. Silverman), a video game shop owner, Pikul speaks rudely to him, but then expresses surprise at his own rudeness. Allegra informs him that it was the doing of his game character.

Reality becomes more distorted when they use new micro pods given to them by Nader, and gain new identities as workers at a game pod factory. There, they meet Yevgeny Nourish (Don McKellar), who claims to be their contact in the Realist underworld. Nourish recommends that Pikul order the special for lunch at a Chinese restaurant near the factory. Once in the restaurant, Pikul "pauses" the game in order to get back to the real world, but finds out that he is unable to distinguish reality from illusion. Back in the restaurant, Pikul develops an urge to eat the unappetizing special, which turns out to be an assortment of cooked mutant animals. Pikul constructs a familiar object from the inedible parts—the pistol used to shoot Allegra. He points it at her as a joke, but then Nourish identifies their Chinese waiter (Oscar Hsu) as an enemy and gets Pikul to shoot him instead. In keeping with the game reality, the other patrons of the restaurant appear more frozen than shocked, and return to their meals when Pikul tells them it was a simple misunderstanding about the bill. When the pair return to the game store, Hugo Carlaw (Callum Keith Rennie) informs them that Nourish is actually a double agent for Cortical Systematics, and the waiter whom Pikul shot was the actual contact. The next day at the factory, the two plan to sabotage all the game pods in the factory by plugging into a diseased pod. When Allegra becomes infected, Pikul frees her by cutting the umbycord. Allegra almost bleeds to death until Nourish shows up again with a flame thrower, directing it at the diseased pod. The pod bursts, releasing deadly spores. Before leaving, Allegra stabs Nourish in the back with a knife.

eXistenZ is a 1999 body horror-science fiction film by Canadian director David Cronenberg. It stars Jennifer Jason Leigh and Jude Law.